James Kirkup is The Telegraph's Executive Editor (Politics). He was previously the Telegraph's Political Editor and has worked at Westminster since 2001.

The election story David Cameron doesn't want you to read: the Conservatives are doing rather well

At the general election last year, the Conservatives won 36 per cent of the vote. Labour got 29 per cent and the Lib Dems 23 per cent.

A YouGov tracker poll last night put the Tories on 37 per cent, Labour on 39 and the Lib Dems on 10 per cent.

Take a second to ponder that. After a year in office, after announcing major and controversial cuts in public spending, after a overseeing some fairly poorly-handled policies, after launching a foreign war, David Cameron’s party is basically just as popular as it was 12 months ago.

Add in the fact that the local election results don’t look like being disastrous for the Conservatives: they started from a pretty high base. Oh, and barring a stupendous surprise, AV will be roundly defeated.

All in all, the Conservatives have good reasons to be cheerful today. But oddly, the Tories don’t seem to be keen to highlight their successes. CCHQ is happily pumping out information about Labour’s election travails and disappointments, but is diplomatically saying rather less about Conservative gains from the Lib Dems. Is this Tory modesty an attempt to ease the pain for Nick Clegg?

PS:
Just a thought, but given the Tory strength, the Lib Dem disarray and Labour's failure to open up an real lead, how long before we start to hear mutterings about Mr Cameron calling a snap general election….?